Dolphins Grind Out
Win to Reach State Championship:Harold Heischober
Field at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex was the scene
for the Group AAA Division 6 State Semifinals between the undefeated Ocean
Lakes Dolphins and the Northwest Region Champion C.D. Hylton
Bulldogs.The Eastern Region Champion
Dolphins bolted to a three-touchdown lead at half-time and held on for a 21-14
victory.

With the win, Ocean Lakes is now 14-0 overall and will
be playing in the State Championship game at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville
on December 8th.

"It's the first time, but it's beautiful to the ears
for the Ocean Lakes Dolphins and the community.I think it's not just the football team headed up there, it's everyone
that's been apart of this program from the beginning, on the field and off the
field," commented Coach Chris Scott of
Ocean Lakes afterwards.

Even at the end of a scoreless first quarter, Ocean
Lakes had already piled up 110 rushing yards on 18 carries.C.D. Hylton ended
the opening half with only one first down, 46 total yards and failed to convert
any of their four third down opportunities.

Time of Possession was a major factor through two
periods of play as well with the Dolphins claiming a decisive 16:51 to 7:09
advantage, converting 8 of 12 third downs to keep the Bulldogs' defense on the
field.

Filling in for the injured Corwin Cutler, the UVA commit who's out for the rest of the
playoffs with a torn ACL, junior quarterback Churchie Harold threw for 146 yards in the first half.Harold got off to a slow
start, going 2-for-7 with just six yards out of the gate.He settled down in the second quarter and
actually got hot by completing six of his final seven pass attempts to end the
half with a pair of touchdowns to senior Andre
Dessenbergand junior Mike Alston.

A Delaware commit, Dessenberg
grabbed his 22nd touchdown pass of the season, tying him with Damon McDaniel of
Landstown for the most in a season for a Beach
District player.That also puts him just
three away from tying the VHSL single-season touchdown receptions record.

C.D. Hylton, which didn't
commit its first penalty in the game until 8:38 remaining, got on the board
with a couple of touchdown passes from junior QB Travon McMillian to Terrin Allen-Neal,
who scored the first time after breaking a couple of tackles and found the end
zone again after catching a deflected ball.That brought the Bulldogs within a touchdown with 10:16 to play.

"We had all the momentum, so the strategy for the
second half was we didn't want to waste time and C.D. Hylton's
a good team capable of making a comeback," noted Ocean Lakes
junior running back Brandon Simmons."Our plan was to try to run it down their
throats, wear the clock down and not make mistakes."

Team

Time (QTR)

Scoring Play (C.D. Hylton vs. Ocean Lakes)

Game Score

OL

11:14 (2)

Harold
1-yard run, PAT Buie good

7-0

OL

1:47 (2)

Harold
37-yard pass to Dessenberg, PAT Buie
good

14-0

OL

0:07 (2)

Harold 57-yard pass to
Alston, PAT Buie good

21-0

CDH

10:10 (3)

McMillian 55-yard pass to
Allen-Neal, PAT Mensah good

21-7

CDH

10:16 (4)

McMillian 21-yard pass to
Allen-Neal, PAT Mensah good

21-14

While the Bulldogs were able to force three straight three-and-outs by the
Ocean Lakes offense to begin the second half, they struggled to move the ball
at times themselves.Hylton
had there consecutive three-and-outs in the second half also with Dolphins star
d-tackles Derrick Nnadi,
a junior and BCS prospect, and Maryland commit Demetri McGill imposing their will on the interior.

Getting Nnadi, McGill and company
to harass McMillian and keep his rushing total down was one of the Dolphins'
main objectives going into the matchup.

"He's an explosive athlete, All-State sophomore,
All-State junior, rushed for 1000, thrown for 1000," Scott said of McMillian. "We also knew their starters on the defensive
line are their starters on the offensive line, and their middle 'backer.The more that we could it 275 to 290 pounds
of offensive line on those guys and wear them down, then those guys had to turn
around and come right back on the field and line up in front of two 6-foot-2,
305-pounders."

The Dolphins benefitted from two takeaways, the second
coming off a pass T.J. Griffin deflected
into the arms of teammate Anthony 'SeSe' Wolters, who made a key
sack on third down with under five minutes to play in the game.

Simmons was able to help put the game away, breaking
off consecutive 11-yard runs to keep the clock churning and he ended up with a
game-high 110 yards on the ground on 25 attempts.

"When it gets down to the wire, you've got to pull
everything out that you have in your game.All that heart," Simmons stated."I
like to play with emotion, but not emotional.I try to keep a composed head, and to be a leader for my team, I can't
get down on my team because they look at me."

Dolphins Big Men Pave the Way:Simmons was one of four ball carriers
along with sophomore receiver Jaason Lewis,
junior halfback Jordan Boboand Harold to rush for over 40 yards.As a team, the Dolphins finished up with 252
yards rushing on 50 carries compared to just 80 yards rushing on 28 rushes for
C.D. Hylton.

Ocean Lakes' offensive line from left to right
featuring Alex Skidmore (Duke commit), Daniel Boothe, J.D.
Dunaway, Connor Kearney and Javon Majors controlled things for the
duration of the game.

"We feel like it's been the difference all year
long.We have so many explosive athletes.A lot of times, those explosive guys get the
tabloids, the thanks or the pats on the back because those are the guys that can
it into the end zone.But we could not
do it without our guys up front," Scott said of his o-line.

"Going into the postseason, not only have they produced
over 2300 yards of passing and protecting the quarterback, they've also
produced over 2000 yards rushing.That's
a big deal.They take pride in it, we
know what we have up front, we're confident in it, they have a job, we play one
way and we put it on their shoulders and they delivered."

Having an experienced, sturdy group up front allows the
Dolphins to be multi-dimensional offensively and attack opposing defenses out
of formations to get their weapons the ball in space.

Dolphins Stay in Attack
Mode:Perhaps no series better defines Ocean Lakes than the one before the half
as C.D. Hylton elected to punt the ball back to the
Dolphins down 14-0 on 4th & 1 from their own 44-yard line with under a
minute to go.Ocean Lakes got the ball
at their own 37-yard line with 25 seconds left.

Two plays later, Ocean Lakes found the end zone to
increase their lead from 14-0 to 21-0, and essentially it was the game-winning
touchdown.

"I think we've been aggressive all year in our
play-calling on offense, defense and special teams.Why go from it now?We tried to hit them with the hook-and-ladder
and were just about six inches from taking that thing down the sideline,"
explained Scott.

"After that, we could've taken the knee, but we've got
playmakers and you can't leave it out there on the field.We wanted to play to win and the players make
the Coach look good when it goes right."

Linebackers Step Up:The Dolphins have what most consider the best
defensive tackle combo in the state with Nnadi and
McGill.They are enforcers that open up
things for their defensive ends and linebackers to make play, which they did on
Saturday.

Fred
Hendrith, Myke Knox and Jahvoni Simmons all stepped up.Each has had multiple double-digit tackle
games on the season and solidified a position that was somewhat of a question
mark entering the season.

"Fred Hendrith has been an
unbelievable player and what other people don't know is he's a great running
back.He's been selfless because we had
a guy not play this year that was an All-Beach returner.He's stepped in and been so solid for us all
year long.Very disciplined, very quiet,
but a hard-nosed guy that's played a position going into the season he wasn't
going to do," Scott went on to say.

"Myke Knox has led us all
year in the middle with big tackles, and Jahvonni
Simmons, who picked up his first BCS offer from Virginia yesterday and has an
offer from ODU, has had two unbelievable playoff games.And he's only a sophomore."

Facing one of the best rushing attacks around, not only
will those two d-tackles be important, so too will these linebackers that have
been instrumental in helping the Dolphins pitch six shutouts during the regular
season.

Dolphins Head to UVA:UVA, it's the future home of Cutler and former
Dolphins star Eli Harold.That's where Ocean
Lakes will be on Saturday, playing for a state title.

In order to capture the crown, they'll have to knock
off another undefeated team in Central Region Champion L.C. Bird, which got a
400-plus yard rushing performance from Paul Robertson in defeating Oakton in
the other Division 6 State Semis matchup.

Getting to this point after seeing their starting
quarterback go down to injury three weeks ago has extra meaning for the
Dolphins, a team predicted to finish third in the Beach District behind Salem
and Bayside before the season began.

"This means a lot," said Lewis, getting a chance to
play for a ring as a tenth grader."In
the regular season, no one picked us to do this, but we knew what we could
do.Everyone has bought into what Coach
Scott and the coaches have been preaching.Winning the State Championship would mean a lot to us and the school."

Following their win over Hylton,
the fact that the Dolphins will be playing in the State Championship game for
the first time in school history hadn't really sunk in to all of the
players.It probably won't until kick-off
on December 8th.

"Probably when I get to the game, I'll feel it,"
Simmons admitted."These guys are like
my second family.We work hard and it
feels great.Even though we're going to
the State's, we've got to always go back to the drawing the board, see what we
did wrong and get better.It's just another
game and we can't overthink it because if you overthink it things could go
wrong sometimes."